JP2006124106A - Paper sheet post-processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a paper sheet post-processing device for preventing unstable holding of a paper sheet between a leading edge stopper and an alignment plate in ejecting and loading the paper sheet to stably loading the paper sheet. <P>SOLUTION: The paper sheet post-processing device comprises: an approximately horizontal paper sheet ejecting means; a paper sheet loading means adjacent to the paper sheet ejecting means; the leading edge stopper for aligning the leading edges of the paper sheets; the alignment plate moving on the paper sheet loading means along a direction wherein the paper sheet is ejected from the paper sheet ejecting means and from a stand-by position to a paper sheet alignment completion position; and a control means controlling the movement of the alignment plate. The control means controls the alignment plate, in the process of the movement of the alignment plate from the stand-by position for holding the paper sheet between the leading edge stopper and the alignment plate and the completion of the alignment of paper sheets, so that the alignment plate temporally stops before the paper sheet alignment completion position, restarts moving after a lapse of a predetermined time, and then stops at the paper sheet alignment completion position. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention sequentially takes sheets discharged after image formation from an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and a multifunction machine having these functions into a sheet post-processing apparatus, and aligns the stacked sheets. The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus having an alignment mechanism.

  A sheet post-processing device for performing various post-processing is connected to the high-speed image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic system, and various post-processing such as folding processing and binding processing are performed on the image-formed paper in one apparatus. Multifunctional image forming systems that can be performed are widely used.

  In various types of paper post-processing apparatuses, sheets that are folded half by one on a substantially horizontal folding stacker are ejected substantially horizontally along the direction of the fold, and obliquely from the paper discharge outlet of the folding stacker. There is a saddle stitching device having a structure in which a stack is sequentially stacked on a chevron-shaped binding stacker (saddle-shaped paper stacking means) located substantially horizontally below. In the saddle stitching apparatus, when paper is discharged from the folding stacker to the binding stacker, alignment is performed such that the trailing edge of the paper provided on the binding stacker is pushed at a timing when the trailing edge of the paper is completely discharged from the folding stacker. The alignment operation starts as the board follows the paper. At this time, the behavior of the sheet is greatly influenced by the movement start timing and speed of the alignment plate. For example, if the movement start timing and speed of the aligning plate are too slow, the aligning plate cannot properly push the trailing edge of the sheet, and the trailing end of the sheet is lowered. In any case, the leading edge of the paper is lifted by air resistance.

  Then, it is only necessary to start the alignment operation after the paper has completely dropped onto the binding stacker. However, the alignment process takes too much time, resulting in a decrease in productivity of the image forming apparatus main body.

  Even if the alignment plate is moved to the alignment position at a constant timing and at a constant speed so that the leading edge of the sheet does not float up as in the past, the leading edge of the sheet is abutted against the leading edge stopper while keeping the trailing edge of the sheet pressed. The paper may still not completely fall on the binding stacker due to the action of air resistance. At this time, the paper is pushed slightly by the leading edge stopper and the alignment plate on the trailing edge side, and stops. (See FIG. 8).

  In this state, for example, when stapling is performed, a problem occurs that the position of the stapling is shifted from the fold and the quality of the bookbinding is lowered.

Conventionally, as a method of holding a sheet between a leading edge abutting member and a trailing edge pressing member and aligning the sheet in the transport direction, first alignment means for sweeping discharged sheets toward the trailing edge regulating member, and trailing edge regulation A second alignment unit that abuts against a member and a method for repeating the alignment operation twice for the final sheet (for example, see Patent Document 1) and a basic method for alignment processing in the vertical and horizontal directions of the sheet (for example, patents) Reference 2).
JP 2001-026363 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-171057

  However, in the above proposal, the sheet is pressed and aligned with the alignment plate. However, it is difficult for the image forming apparatus that processes the image forming process at high speed to perform the function following the processing speed. Such problems as paper floating, stapling, and bookbinding quality are likely to occur.

  The present invention avoids paper floating and unstable pinching between the leading end abutting member and the trailing end pressing member during discharging and stacking, enables stable sheet alignment and stacking, and achieves high-quality bookbinding. An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet post-processing apparatus for guiding.

  The object is to provide a paper discharge means for discharging paper in a substantially horizontal direction, a paper stacking means for introducing and stacking paper discharged by the paper discharge means adjacent to the paper discharge means, and on the paper stacking means. A paper leading end abutting means that is positioned and aligned by abutting the leading edge of the discharged paper, and aligning the paper from the standby position on the paper stacking means along the paper discharging direction by the paper discharging means. In a sheet post-processing apparatus having a sheet trailing edge aligning unit that moves to a completion position and a control unit that controls movement of the sheet trailing edge aligning unit, the sheet trailing edge aligning unit moves from the standby position to the sheet discharge direction. In the process of completing the paper alignment by holding the paper between the paper leading edge abutting means and the paper trailing edge aligning means, the paper trailing edge aligning means Once stopped before, it is achieved by the sheet post-processing apparatus characterized by being controlled by said control means to stop at the sheet aligning completion position to resume movement after a predetermined time.

  According to the first to seventh aspects of the present invention, it is possible to speed up the alignment process in the paper discharge direction and improve the alignment accuracy, and to create a high-quality booklet without reducing the productivity of the image forming apparatus. To provide a paper post-processing device.

  First, a sheet post-processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the description of the embodiment of the present invention, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited by the terms used in this specification.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of the sheet post-processing apparatus.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the sheet conveyance in the middle folding and saddle stitching process of the sheet post-processing apparatus.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a right side surface of the sheet post-processing apparatus.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the left side of the sheet post-processing apparatus.

  First, a paper conveyance process from paper introduction from the image forming apparatus to before folding processing will be described.

  1, 2, 3, and 4, when the sheet S discharged from the image forming apparatus A is introduced into the inlet portion 11 of the sheet post-processing apparatus B, the sheet S is sandwiched by the inlet roller 12 and the conveyance path is switched. The sheet is conveyed to either the upper sheet conveying path r1 or the lower sheet conveying path r2 of the means G1.

<Straight output>
The sheet S branched into the sheet conveyance path r1 is nipped and conveyed by the conveyance rollers 13A to 13E, and conveyed to either the sheet conveyance path r3 above or below the sheet conveyance path r4 of the conveyance path switching means G2. .

  The paper S that has traveled to the upper paper transport path r3 is ejected by the paper ejection roller 14 and stacked on the sub paper ejection tray 15 disposed at the top of the paper post-processing apparatus B.

  The sheet S that has advanced to the lower sheet conveyance path r4 is nipped and conveyed by the conveyance rollers 16A to 16D, and is discharged by the paper discharge roller 17.

<First right angle deflection transport>
The sheet S transported to the sheet transport path r2 below the transport path switching means G1 descends almost vertically, and is temporarily stopped and stored at a predetermined position. At this stop position, a plurality of subsequent sheets S are stacked and stored.

<Second right angle deflection conveyance>
The accommodated paper S is deflected and moved in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 3 by the transport roller pair 18A, 18B, the first transport roller pair 18C, 18D, and a guide plate (not shown), and the paper post-processing device B The paper passes through the paper conveyance path r5 that wraps around the inner front side Bf with the paper surface upright, and temporarily stops at a predetermined position.

<Third right-angle deflection conveyance>
Next, the sheet S is transported vertically upward by the second transport roller pair 18E and 18F, then deflected in the horizontal direction, and moved by the transport roller pair 19 and the transport alignment belt 20 (paper transport path r6, FIG. 3). reference).

<Alignment before folding process>
As shown in FIG. 3, the aligning means is disposed downstream of the sheet transport path r6 in the sheet transport direction, and presses the aligning member 21 for positioning by bringing the leading end of the sheet into contact with the trailing end of the sheet S. The movable alignment member 20A is movable. The aligning member 20A presses the rear end portion of the sheet S conveyed by the conveying roller pair 19 disposed on the upstream side of the sheet conveying direction in the sheet conveying path r6 and moves it to the aligning member 21 so that the leading end portion of the sheet is aligned. 21, the paper is aligned (aligned).

  Next, the three-fold processing, the middle folding processing, and the saddle stitching processing of the paper S in the paper post-processing apparatus B will be specifically described.

<Tri-fold processing>
A folding means 30 is disposed downstream of the conveyance alignment belt 20 in the sheet conveyance direction. The folding means 30 includes folding rollers 31, 32, 33, a first folding plate 34, and a second folding plate 35.

  In the case of performing the three-fold process, the folding unit 30 forms the first fold portion on the sheet S by the folding rollers 31 and 32 and the first folding plate 34, and the folding rollers 32 and 33 and the second folding plate 35. As a result, the second fold portion is formed on the sheet S, and the signature SA that has been folded in three passes through the sheet conveyance path r8 including a plurality of conveyance rollers 36 and guide plates, and is discharged by the sheet discharge roller 37. It is discharged to the paper tray 38 (see FIG. 3).

<Folding process>
The sheet S or sheets S that have reached the folding means 30 are sandwiched between folding rollers 31 and 32 that rotate in opposite directions and a first folding plate 34 that travels in a reverse direction, and are subjected to an intermediate folding process. A signature SA is formed in which a fold portion b (see FIG. 2) is formed in the center in the paper width direction.

  The signature SA that has been folded in half by the folding rollers 31 and 32 and the first folding plate 34 to form the fold portion b is separated from the nip position of the folding rollers 31 and 32 by the reverse rotation of the folding rollers 31 and 32. And returned to the original horizontal conveyance path. The signature SA is continued by the conveyance belt 41 stretched around the paper discharge rollers 41a and 41b, which are components of the conveyance means 40 as the paper discharge means, the conveyance claw 42, and the introduction guide member 51 of the signature guide means 50. Then, the sheet is conveyed to the sheet conveyance path r7 in the direction of the extension line of the fold part b and sent to the saddle stitching means 60 (see FIG. 2).

  In the vicinity of the paper discharge port on the paper discharge roller 41b side, a paper rear end discharge detection means D is provided.

  In this way, the folding means 30 performs the middle folding process on a small number of one to three sheets S, firmly attaches the crease part b, and sequentially feeds it to the saddle stitching means 60, thereby making the crease part b. It is possible to produce a high-quality sheet bundle SS with less swelling.

<Saddle stitching>
The signature SA that has been subjected to the middle folding process in the folding means 30 is advanced by the conveying means 40 in the direction of the paper conveying path r7, and is slantedly placed on the saddle stitching means 60 adjacent to the lower side of the paper discharging means. 61 (see FIG. 4). The subsequent signature SA that has been subjected to the middle folding process continues to be stacked on the sheet stacking means 61 through the sheet transport path r7.

  The paper stacking means 61 is composed of two guide plates that are substantially orthogonal to each other, and is fixed to the main body of the paper post-processing apparatus B.

  In the vicinity of the top of the paper stacking means 61, a pressing member 61A that can be lifted and lowered by a spring is supported by the needle receiving mechanism 64 (see FIG. 4).

  The top portion of the pressing member 61A has a convex shape that is substantially perpendicular to the upper side, and the fold portion b of the signature SA that has been subjected to the middle folding process is placed on the top ridge line.

  The plurality of signatures SA placed on the sheet stacking means 61 and the pressing member 61A are aligned by the width aligning means 62.

  A needle striking mechanism 63 is fixedly disposed above the pressing member 61A. Inside the paper stacking means 61, a pressing member 61A and a needle receiving mechanism 64 are supported so as to be movable in the vertical direction.

  Two sets of binding means having a two-part structure composed of the needle-striking mechanism 63 and the needle-receiving mechanism 64 are arranged in the direction of the sheet fold. When the saddle stitching process is set in the operation unit, the needle receiving mechanism 64 is raised to perform the saddle stitching process. That is, the two sets of binding means strike the binding needles SP at two places in the central distribution along the fold portion b of the signature SA on the pressing member 61A. The sheet bundle SS subjected to the center folding process and the saddle stitching process is shown in a perspective view of FIG.

Next, as an embodiment relating to the present invention, a mechanism and an operation for performing a sheet aligning operation in the case of half-folding that is folded in two will be described. Is possible.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram enlarging a part of the chain line T in FIG.

  In FIG. 5, in the case of folding processing and saddle stitching, after the trailing edge of the sheet S is completely discharged from the conveying means 40 that is a folding stacker, the sheets discharged by the conveying means 40 are stacked by the binding stacker. The alignment plate 66, which is a sheet trailing edge alignment unit provided on the sheet stacking unit 61 to be slid, slides along the guide rail 69 (see FIG. 5) and starts the alignment operation (movement) so as to follow the sheet S. Will do.

  FIG. 6 shows a cross section viewed from the direction of arrow B in FIG.

  5 and 6, the aligning plate 66 is fixed to a belt 68 that is rotated by a power from a stepping motor M via a shaft 68c and a driving belt 68 that is stretched around a driven roller 68b. On the means 61, a reciprocating motion is performed between the paper introduction position P1 as a standby position longer than the maximum width of the paper and the paper alignment completion position P2. The stepping motor M rotates in accordance with a command from a control unit (not shown) and moves the alignment plate 66.

  The leading edge of the sheet whose trailing edge is pushed by the alignment plate 66 is aligned by a leading edge stopper 67 which is a sheet leading edge abutting means. The leading end stopper 67 is fixed to the guide rail 69 corresponding to the paper size.

  As described above, in the conventional sheet aligning operation, even if the leading end of the sheet is abutted against the leading end stopper while the aligning plate is continuously pressed against the trailing end of the sheet, the sheet is still on the sheet stacking unit that is a binding stacker by the action of air resistance. Therefore, there is a problem in that it does not fall completely and is held between the tip stopper and the alignment plate in a slightly floating state and stops.

  The present invention has been proposed to prevent such a problem.

  This is because the alignment plate 66 starts to move in the same direction as the paper discharge direction from the paper introduction position P1 every time the paper is discharged, and from the middle of the movement, the trailing edge of the paper that has been dropped or has been dropped. The aligning plate 66 moves while being pushed, and the sheet is nipped and aligned between the leading end stopper 67 and the aligning plate 66 to complete the aligning process, and before the aligning completion position P2, a predetermined distance before the aligning process. In this method, after stopping once, the movement is resumed after a predetermined time, and the sheet is sandwiched between the leading end stopper 67 and the alignment plate 66 to complete the alignment.

  The paper discharged from the paper discharge port E falls freely on the paper stacking means 61, but is in a floating state until it completely reaches the paper stacking means 61. In this state, the alignment plate 66 As described above, when the trailing edge of the sheet is pushed, the trailing edge of the sheet is pushed and advances depending on the movement timing and speed of the alignment plate 66, and the behavior of the sheet is greatly affected.

  Therefore, each time the sheet is discharged, the alignment plate 66 is temporarily stopped before a predetermined distance before the alignment (clamping) completion position, and the alignment is performed after the sheet is completely dropped and then driven again. Matching is possible.

  However, the timing at which the alignment plate 66 starts to move from the position where the paper is introduced is determined (controlled) in accordance with at least one of the discharged speed of the discharged paper, the amount of paper, the size, and the number of superimposed sheets (claim). Item 2). The moving speed of the alignment plate is determined according to at least one of the discharging speed, the amount of the paper, the size, and the number of sheets to be stacked (Claim 3). The distance from when the alignment plate is temporarily stopped to a predetermined distance before the alignment completion position from the sheet introduction position is determined according to at least one of the discharge speed of the discharged sheets, the amount of paper, the size, and the number of stacked sheets (claim) Item 4). The time from when the aligning plate stops once to when the movement is resumed is determined according to at least one of the discharge speed of the discharged paper, the amount of paper, the size, and the number of superimposed sheets. It should be noted that the relationship between the discharge speed, the amount, the size, the number of stacked sheets, the movement timing of the alignment plate, and the speed of the discharged sheets is stored in a control unit (not shown) as a table.

  Next, a procedure for sheet alignment operation will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the procedure of the sheet alignment operation.

In FIG. 7A, the folded sheet S is discharged toward the sheet stacking unit 61 by the transport belt 41 in the direction along the folded line b. At this time, the alignment plate 66 is stopped at P1. In FIG. 7B, the alignment plate 66 starts moving so as to follow the sheet in the floating state at the time when the trailing end of the sheet has passed the sheet trailing end discharge detecting means D is completed. In FIG. 7C, the alignment plate 66 reaches the trailing edge of the sheet and moves while pushing the trailing edge.
In FIG. 7D, the movement of the aligning plate 66 is temporarily stopped immediately before the leading edge of the sheet hits the leading end stopper 67 and is sandwiched between the aligning plate 66. At this time, there is a gap between the sheet and the alignment plate 66 and the front end stopper 67, and the momentum of the sheet falling in the vertical direction is not lost. After that, after waiting for a predetermined time at the stop position P3 and the sheet completely falling on the sheet stacking means 61, the movement is resumed in FIG. 7E, and the alignment plate 66 has the leading end of the sheet hitting the leading end stopper. To complete the sheet alignment.

  If the alignment plate 66 does not stop once, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 8, the leading or trailing end of the sheet is not completely dropped due to air resistance or the like when the sheet being dropped onto the sheet stacking means 61 is pushed forward and floated. May be pinched.

  The present invention prevents the problem of being pinched in a floating state by adding a process of temporarily stopping the movement of the alignment plate 66 immediately before the leading edge of the sheet hits the leading edge stopper 67 as shown in FIG. It is characterized by being able to.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state where the sheet is nipped between the leading end stopper and the alignment plate.

  Hereinafter, the sheet alignment process will be described with reference to a flowchart.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the process of matching processing.

  In FIG. 9, the matching process is started in step S1. In step S 2, the trailing edge of the sheet conveyed to the sheet stacking unit 61 is detected by the sheet trailing edge discharge detection unit D. If the detection is completed (Y), the process proceeds to step S3, and a timer count for measuring the start timing of the movement of the alignment plate 66 from the paper introduction position P1 is started. If not detected (N), the detection is continued and the detection is waited. In step S4, when the timer count expires (Y), the movement operation (A) of the alignment plate 66 is started in step S5, and the alignment plate 66 moves a predetermined distance while pushing the rear end of the sheet at a predetermined speed. Stop at stop position P3. If the timer count has not been reached, the count continues and waits for movement. In step S6, the timer count of the movement resumption timing is started from the stop of the alignment plate 66. In step S7, when the restart timing timer count expires (Y), the process proceeds to step S8, where the alignment plate 66 resumes the moving operation (B), and the leading edge of the sheet abuts against the leading edge stopper 67 while pressing the sheet (sheet alignment). The alignment process is completed in step S9. Thereafter, the alignment plate 66 moves in the reverse direction and returns to the initial paper introduction position P1. That is, it reciprocates between the paper introduction position P1 and the completion of paper alignment. If the count is not reached in position step S7, the count is continued.

  The above processing is performed by a control means (not shown).

2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an overall configuration of a sheet post-processing apparatus. FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating sheet conveyance in a middle folding and saddle stitching process of a sheet post-processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the right side surface of a paper post-processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the left side surface of a paper post-processing apparatus. It is the schematic which expanded the dashed-dotted line T in FIG. 6 shows a cross section viewed from the direction of arrow B in FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing a procedure of sheet alignment operation. It is a figure which shows the state clamped in the state which the paper floated between the front-end | tip stopper and the alignment board. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of matching processing.

Explanation of symbols

30 Folding means 40 Conveying means 41 Conveying belt 42 Conveying claw 60 Saddle stitching means 61 Paper stacking means 66 Alignment plate 67 Front end stopper 68 Driving belt 69 Guide rail D Paper trailing edge discharge detecting means

Claims (7)

A paper discharge means for discharging the paper in a substantially horizontal direction, a paper stacking means for introducing and stacking the paper discharged by the paper discharge means adjacent to the paper discharge means, and positioned on the paper stacking means for discharge The paper leading end abutting means that is positioned and aligned by abutting the leading end of the paper that has been abutted, and the paper stacking means are moved from the standby position to the paper alignment completion position along the paper discharging direction by the paper discharging means. In the sheet post-processing apparatus having the sheet trailing edge aligning means and the control means for controlling the movement of the sheet trailing edge aligning means, the sheet trailing edge aligning means starts moving from the standby position in the sheet discharging direction. In the process of holding the sheet between the sheet leading edge abutting means and the sheet trailing edge aligning means and completing the sheet alignment, the sheet trailing edge aligning means is in front of the sheet alignment completion position. Dan stopped, the paper post-processing apparatus characterized by being controlled by said control means to stop at the sheet aligning completion position to resume movement after a predetermined time. The timing at which the sheet trailing edge aligning unit starts moving is determined according to at least one of a discharge speed, a crease amount, a size, and a superposition number of sheets discharged by the sheet discharge unit. Item 2. A sheet post-processing apparatus according to Item 1. 2. The speed at which the paper trailing edge aligning means moves is determined according to at least one of a paper discharge speed, a crease amount, a size, and a superposition number of sheets discharged by the paper discharge means. Or the sheet post-processing apparatus according to 2; The position at which the sheet is temporarily stopped before the sheet alignment completion position is determined in accordance with at least one of a discharge speed, a flaw amount, a size, and a superposition number of sheets discharged by the sheet discharge unit. Item 4. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 3. The time from when the sheet trailing edge aligning unit temporarily stops before the alignment completion position to when the sheet resumes movement is determined by the discharge speed, the amount, the size, and the number of overlapped sheets discharged by the sheet discharging unit. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet post-processing apparatus is determined according to at least one. 6. The sheet trailing edge aligning unit is moved to the position where the sheet trailing edge is stopped while pressing the trailing edge of the sheet discharged from the sheet discharging unit. Paper post-processing equipment. 7. The sheet post-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet trailing edge aligning unit is moved in the sheet discharging direction every time the sheet trailing end aligning unit is discharged from the sheet discharging unit.

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